National anthem protests disrespectful
Make your political statements after the game and after you take your uniform off
Our forefathers and our foremothers designed this nation. They were free thinkers, enlightened men and women, daring thinkers with dangerous ideas. They were one statement, one publication, one meeting or one “free speech” away from prison or being murdered for their views.
They questioned the authority of the divine king and instead put their faith in their Creator’s natural rights and man’s reason.
They took ideas and ideals, dangerous in their time, to maturity: can man govern himself; can man think for himself; can man handle democracy? Other attempts in history were short lived.
Excitement rained and reigned as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States formulated the rules for this new nation. They took humanity and made it into a verb — free to live and achieve as they could.
Our flag and our national anthem are symbols of what these man and women and their Creator created for all mankind, not just the United States: freedom, liberty, opportunity, what we today call a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
The protests during the playing of our national anthem before sporting events or other gatherings are misguided acts of disrespect. Regardless of the cause, the venue is wrong; whatever the issue, the forum is wrong; whatever the politics, the expression against these symbols is wrong.
This disrespect is not only against America, but disrespect for the ideals America and Americans have brought to the world.
Make your political statements after the game and after you take your uniform off. The symbols you are rallying against say you have that right. Without the powers that the symbols portray, other governments would not allow you to sit or kneel.
Without these early American super stars and their super ideals, the people of the world today might still be slaves to despot leaders who have no reason to tolerate free expression, free speech or the free actions of disrespect to their flag, for liberty might still be a fleeting ideal looking for champions.